


Late Night Jazz

by Lady_Jae (misskorya)



Series: Batgirl Begins [3]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gotham AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-17
Updated: 2015-09-17
Packaged: 2018-04-21 05:13:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4816337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misskorya/pseuds/Lady_Jae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Barbara Gordon does her best to deal with the death of her godmother, Renee Montoya. She finds herself attracted to Renee's former protege Victor Sage. Friends Laurel and Sara Lance stop by to help Barbara cope. /Gotham AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	Late Night Jazz

**Author's Note:**

> I was listening to Spotify's Late Night Jazz playlist which starts off with John Coltrane and inspired the title. Yes, Sara and Laurel Lance from Arrow drop by in this AU where the two worlds are one.

Barbara finished stacking the records into a protective trunk. She ran a finger through her turtle neck sweater and adjusted the end so it fit just over her belt loops. There was a dim of light coming from the fire place, and the smell of empanadas coming from the oven, and as she sat in the middle of the living room packing away her godmother’s things and taking inventory of the many collectibles that had gathered over the years. She paused a moment as her eyes came over a John Coltrane record, she walked toward it and put her hand over its aged cover.

_“My Mom loved jazz.” Renee said to the young Barbara. “She would dance Barbie, oh how she would dance.”_

_“How did she dance?” The then nine year old Barbara would ask her godmother. “Can you show me?”_

_Renee smiled. “Yeah, I can show you, c'mere.”_

Taking in a deep breath, Barbara hugged the record and then she walked toward the record player and was careful to set it in place. And as she let the needle slide over the ridges and grooves, the scratches it made seemed to make her think that Renee would walk right through those front doors and question what in the hell Barbara had done with her house.

But she only found herself staring at a blank part of the wall as her trance was cut off by the smooth sounds of Naima a song by John Coltrane. So the redhead continued to work, there in the living room and somewhere in her mind, she kept thinking about those files. The journals that Renee had kept about her time as the Question. 

Getting up from the living room, she headed for the back bedroom, and the music flooded in as it always had. The door opened and there before her were the muted tones and colors that once decorated Renee’s bedroom, and now they were becoming bare as piece by piece Barbara took them down. 

For now, she went toward the bed where the files had remained. She lifted up the file titled Batman, and then found another that read, Black Canary. Curiously, she sat down and began to pour through them all. Her mind was at ease with the sound of jazz in the background and the roar of the fireplace from the living room.

The bedroom was dimly lit, Renee having insisted that she preferred dim lights to bright lights. 

After reading a few case notes, and journals… Barbara was starting to understand why. Bright lights usually meant Renee had gotten herself captured or landed in a hospital neither were good times.

But the dim lights, were warmer in color, and tone and reminded Renee of better times.

Babs sighed as she set the files down, and her eye was caught on a particular picture. She smiled faintly walking toward it, it was a photo of Renee and Barbara’s mother Barbara Eileen Kean-Gordon, as teenagers somewhere by the docks ready to have the best day of their young lives.

Setting the photo down she rubbed her shoulders down and walked out of the room that was starting to feel colder by the moment. 

A knock came to the door and Barbara walked toward it with ease. She looked out the peep hole and smiled, Dinah and Sara Lance had arrived with Thai. What would she do without them?

Opening the door, the two girls rushed in and were quick to shove their takeout into Barbara’s arms and shed themselves of winter coats. “You made her famous empanadas!” Dinah gushed as she walked toward the kitchen. “Oh and you made the sweet ones with the cinnamon and sweet potatoes!”

Barbara set the Thai food on the table and replied. “I did.”

“John Coltrane.” Sara remarked as she grabbed a few plates. “I think your Montoya is showing.”

“Well.” Barbara began to say and then Dinah cut her off.

“She was practically Renee’s daughter, what do you expect?” There was a small grin on Dinah’s face as she began to divvy out the Thai food in equal portions.

Sara shook her head as she walked toward the living room with her plate of food, grateful that Renee had knocked the wall between said dining room and living room. Or vice versa, from the living room stare straight into the dining room catching a glimpse of the kitchen as you did so. 

Although tonight, Barbara was forced into becoming the middle of a Lance sandwich with a sister to her left and the other on her right, all with their plates of Thai food looking out onto the Gotham skyline. An old television sat against the glass pane wall where you could see the yard, and then down onto the rest of Gotham.

It was a swanky 70s style pad, where Renee lived. Usually alone, but there was a room reserved for her Barbie doll, on the right across from the office and next door to the back bedroom where Renee slept.

“So I heard you and Victor buried the hatchet so to speak.” Dinah commented as an ice breaker to force conversation, since she didn’t usually enjoy silence.

Barbara did, but she knew Sara had said something the two sisters were the worse of secret keepers and just terrible when it came to gossip. So rather than try to change the subject she just went into it headlong. “We came to a mutual understanding.”

“Uh huh.” Dinah said not really believing that- that was all that had happened at least not with how Sara was describing the encounter.

“So Sara, when are you getting shipped out?” Barbara asked.

A change of subject, she decided to do it for her own sanity lest she allow Dinah to really chew on the is that all you and Victor did bone. 

Sara answered plainly. “In a few weeks, I’ll be out at sea for quite sometime, surrounded by dudes.”

“I’m sure you’ll just love it.” Dinah remarked with sass as she got an elbow from Barbara. Then there was nothing to talk about except the elephant in the room, like how long was Barbara planning on sleeping out at Renee’s and what was going to happen to the property. If Renee had left a will, it wasn’t turning itself up- but rest assured Dinah Laurel Lance was on the case, or at least trying.

“I talked to Renee’s family today.” Barbara said out of the blue. “Renee didn’t have much and they have no use for the house, so.”

“So.” Sara continued, waiting for an answer.

“So, I’m going to give it to Victor.” She then shoved a forkful of food into her mouth.

Dinah looked over at Barbara as if the woman had just been hit by blunt force trauma and began to check the redhead’s vitals.

Shoving the blonde’s hands out of her face, Barbara justified herself. “I’m finally… taking my Mom’s loft in the Clocktower and making good on that Kean trust-fund.”

“Oh.” Both Lance sisters stated as they looked down at their rather empty plates.

“Victor’s been living in a shitty apartment, or so I’ve heard and… I think it’d be better this way.” She finished off her plate of Thai food and was quick to grab the other two plates and took them to the sink.

Dinah got up from the couch and followed Barbara, while Sara looked through the records to find something else to play.

“How do you know that Victor’s been living in a shitty apartment?” Dinah asked someone what protectively, more out of Barbara’s interest than Victor’s but she knew Victor could be an asshole.

Barbara sighed and confessed. “After lunch the other day, I- I might’ve gone to see him and hashed things out.”

If by hashed things out, you mean make out like a couple of hormonal teeangers, sure.

Dinah tucked her tongue between her teeth and looked at Barbara very carefully studying her friends features. “Right, hashed it out.”

“Look, I just. I have a place and I’m taking Renee’s things with me, and I’ll sort out what to keep there.” And scan all of Renee’s old files into a new super computer that I’ve been building in my spare time and have told you nothing about.

“Okay, so hey. My grandfather wanted to know if you were still on for training next week?” Dinah asked as she began to wash dishes while Barbara set the empanadas out on a serving plate.

“Yeah, I am. Are you still gonna come with me to the opening of Wildcat’s gym?” Babs asked.

Sara had long since ignored the conversations between Barbara and Dinah, as she switched records. Putting on some Mood Indigo from Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.

The sound flowed into the kitchen like the water coursing through the river banks. And it drew the other two women into the living room and their conversation died down and they danced.

“Awww, you two are so cute.” Sara quipped.

Dinah rolled her eyes and walked toward the pile of boxes. “Need a little help?”

“Yeah.” Barbara said as she let her hand curve over one of Renee’s posters as it hung on the wall. It was a vintage movie poster from the Dominican Republic. “Yeah I do.”

Sara put her hand on Barbara’s shoulder, a reassurance to let the redhead know that they would always be there for her.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on tumblr @ misskorya!


End file.
